Hey there, people! If you're reading this, it's because you want to hear about the latest happenings and goings on in my crazy life.

If you're not reading this, it means you've probably got more important things to do with your time, and there's... no point in my having typed the last sentence. DUHHHH... :P

Anyway, I thought I'd tell you a story about something that happened a few weeks ago, but forgot to post at the time.

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Around mid-September, I was feeling semi-depressed.

Just the Sunday before at my church, they had called up several teens who had gone off to a ****** different Christian camps to work as counselors and such. They had them describe briefly what they did, and the best part of their summer, etc, etc. Now, besides those people, I also knew of a few other of my friends who had gone off to camp to work as counselors (they go to different churches). Now, these same people have gone to Christian camps in the summer as campers and such.

I have never been to a Christian summer camp. I've never really felt the desire to. The past 4 years, I've gone to HMCS Quadra, a sea cadet summer training camp, three summers under training, and this summer as staff. And I've had a great time every time I've gone there.

This got me thinking over the years, especially this September. Listening to those teens describe how they felt "on fire for God" and other such things, I began to feel guilty.

I am one of the only Christians that I know of in cadets (sea, mostly). There are a handful of others, but there aren't many. As a result, sometimes I feel a bit isolated, both at cadets (where everyone uses language that would make paint peel and talk about very non-Christ-like subjects) and at church (where nobody can really relate to me because the majority of kids my age go to the Christian camps).

So, as I said, I was feeling guilty, and I wondered, "I've never felt a want to go work at any of those Christian camps or felt that whole 'on fire for God' thing... does that make me a bad Christian? I try to do what God wants and live the way He wants me to, but I'm not sure."

I brought the subject up to my mom, and told her that I felt somewhat guilty about being the only one in the church who had staffed at a secular, military camp, whereas all the others had gone off to Christian camps.

She told me,"You know what? Remember when you joined cadets with your friend [Not mentioning names for privacy's sake]? Remember how she didn't stay around for very long because it wasn't for her? You told me that you wanted to stay in - not only because you enjoyed it, but because you wanted to be able to be a witness to those kids. I was so proud of you when you told me that."

When my mom had reminded me of that, a thought popped into my head. "So, I'm sort of doing what Jesus did - I'm hanging around with the 'tax collectors', instead of in the temple [not that the modern-day 'temple' or 'temple people' are bad, as in the past]. That's kinda cool, now that I think about it."

My mom smiled at when I mentioned that to her, and said, "Yeah, I guess you could call it that. Just remember - not everyone is called to work in the same field. You seem to have found a sort of calling with your cadets."

(Hearing that definitely brought up my mood several notches.)

Even now, I can't help but think of that analogy and how it makes sense. I hang around with the modern-day 'tax collectors', doing what Jesus did. It still puts a smile on my face. :D

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If you've read this far, then WOW! You've managed to survive another one of my oddly-long posts! :P